The ten stories in Winter Money are set in rural Kentucky and West Virginia, in dim horse racing and river towns. The men in Andy Plattner’s stories are tough and uncertain, the women independent and disappointed, but they are strong-willed and high-spirited, always believing there’s a better life, just over the horizon, after the next race.The title story depicts the life of a jockey agent who has seen some bad breaks but knows in his heart he can turn things around if he...

Work, and the coffee-fueled day-to-day grind, is the shared concern of these stories, which have been chosen from among the hundreds that have appeared in the prestigious Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction series.More than seventy volumes, which include approximately eight hundred stories, have won the Flannery O'Connor Award. This stunning trove of always engaging, often groundbreaking short fiction is the common source for this anthology on work—and for planned anthologies...

Long time jockey Carl Arvo knows the things he can have and the things he cannot. An unexpected turn of fortune gives him the chance to be with a woman, Christine Fleming, who in some ways is the person he's been looking for his entire life.

Kevin Chong has grand plans. He draws up a to-do list of major milestones that will give him the life he always wanted-and the life that will inspire awe and envy in his friends. Things like settling down and starting a family; learning a foreign language; getting a tattoo. But these grand plans go out the window when Chong makes an unconventional decision: he's going to buy a racehorse. Not the whole thing-he'll become part-owner of the horse. Just don't ask him which part.Thus Ch...

The Drop follows lonely bartender Bob Saginowski through a cover scheme of funelling cash to local gangsters -- 'money drops' -- in the underworld of Boston bars. Under the heavy hand of his employer and cousin Marv, Bob finds himself at the centre of a robbery gone awry and entwined in an investigation that digs deep into the neighbourhood's past where friends, families and foes all work together to make a living -- no matter the cost.A moving, gripping thriller, ...

Magic, music, drugs and rock'n'roll in an early novel from George R. R. Martin, author of A GAME OF THRONESOne-time underground journalist Sandy Blair has traveled far from his radical roots in the '60s - until the bizarre and brutal murder of a millionaire rock promoter draws him back. As Sandy sets out to investigate the crime, he finds himself on a magical mystery tour of the pent-up passions of his generation. For a new messiah has resurrected the once legendar...

Detective to the stars, Myron Bolitar will hunt down the truth. "Coben grabs you with the opening paragraph and never lets you go" ObserverDetective to the stars, Myron Bolitar will hunt down the truth.'Coben grabs you with the opening paragraph and never lets you go' ObserverContains: DEAL BREAKER, DROP SHOT, FADE AWAY, BACK SPIN, ONE FALSE MOVE, THE FINAL DETAIL, DARKEST FEAR, PROMISE ME, LONG LOST.

This “creative and whimsical” (New York Journal of Books) entry in the Chet and Bernie Mystery follows Chet and his human PI companion, Bernie Little, as they investigate a mysterious case of illegal cactus smuggling.When Private Investigator Bernie Little and his canine companion Chet return home, they encounter some alarming developments. First off, Bernie’s wall safe—normally hidden behind the waterfall picture in the office—is gone. And next door, old ...

All 8 instalments of John Locke's bestselling Donovan Creed novels in one volume:LETHAL PEOPLE: Would you let a little girl be murdered if it saved your own family?LETHAL EXPERIMENT: A total stranger offers you $100k, the only condition is that someone else has to die...SAVING RACHEL: You can choose between your wife or your lover, but you can only save one...NOW & THEN: Could you leave behind all you've ever known, for the life you've always wan...

Bud (like a plant, not short for 'Buddy', as he determinedly tells everyone) is a motherless boy on the run. He's determined to find his father but doesn't really know where to start. The only clue his late mother left him was a bunch of flyers about Herman E Calloway and his famous jazz band, the Dusky Devastators of the Depression! Bud's search for his dad is a tough one but just occasionally he hits a note as high as even the Dusky Devastators can play! A superbly entertaining, prize-wi...

Get your tissues ready for this unrequited love story that’s equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking and will appeal to fans of Jennifer Niven, John Green, and Jesse Andrews.Seriously, how can you see a person nearly every day of your life and never think a thing of it, then all of a sudden, one day, it’s different? You see that goofy grin a thousand times and just laugh. But goofy grin #1,001 nearly stops your heart?Right. That sounds like a b...

This career retrospective celebrates the 80th birthday of baseball's greatest scribe, W. P. Kinsella (Shoeless Joe), as well as the 25th anniversary of Field of Dreams, the film that he inspired.In addition to his classic baseball tales, W. P. Kinsella is also a critically-acclaimed short fiction writer. His satiric wit has been celebrated with numerous honors, including the Order of British Columbia.Here are his notorious First Nation narratives of indige...